What Our 7 Billion World Population Does

What Our 7 Billion World Population Does

There is a finite number of people in the world – about 7 billion. No business or government can have more customers than the world population. So what do world’s people do every day?

And there is a finite number of hours in a day – 24. No one can extend them. Our lives are also finite – about 78 years, if you average all lives in the world today. Knowing what the people of the world do with their time can help you use your time more productively. And if you are an entrepreneur, use this knowledge to make something all these people would want.

Here are some fundamental truths you learn about the world:

People Sleep 1/3 of Their Lives

The one activity people spend the most time on is sleep. If you live 78 years, 28.3 of those you will be asleep. So what? If your startup finds a way to improve sleep, your customers will be using your product every day, for 1/3 of their lives. If you improve the quality of their sleep, help them get rid of nightmares, you can say you have served humanity well.

People Spend 6 Years of Life Unhappily- Doing chores.

Who likes doing chores? A startup that mops your floor, washes the dishes, etc. could save you 6 years of life.

People Spend 9 Years Entertaining Themselves.

If people play almost as much as they work even though they are getting paid for work but not for play, there is something that can be done to make work more fun. This starts with education – a person who loves their job often finds it as satisfying as playing. But not everyone does. Far from that. It does not have to be this way if you help more people find the job that they would really like.

Almost Half of World Population Don’t Have a Job

The largest single group of people, kids, are too young to work. How will our world change once these kids grow up in a few years and add almost two billion brains to the global workforce? Will the price of labor go down? Will they be doing new jobs that don’t exist yet? Or will they even have any skills that would make them employable?

Every Fifth Human is Still Farming

Having a job was not always the default way to make money. 100 years ago farming was the default thing to do in life. Today every fifth human is still doing it. It makes sense because someone does need to grow the food we eat. But as more robots drive agricultural growth, humans could not and would not want to compete. So what will they do?

Almost Half a Billion Entrepreneurs

If having a job is the current default way to make money, you have got to ask what will be the next? One group of humans stands out – the 400 million entrepreneurs. These are anyone from a fruit stand entrepreneur to a founder of a bank. One thing they have in common is that they did not look for a job, they created one for themselves. This is likely the future way of living. Most people who can create a job for themselves will, and others will look for one. Of course the world will not look like 10 billion one-person startups, but the ratio we see now will change.

What Can You Do Today?

These images are a snapshot of the world today. It will not stay this way. So if you are learning something, getting a degree, building a startup, or getting a job, a good question to ask is: Am I learning and building for tomorrow’s world or for today’s?